Continuous 2-D assignment for multitarget tracking with rotating radars

Mechanically steered scanning radars receive measurements continuously while sweeping the surveillance region. However, most target tracking algorithms, like the multiple hypothesis tracker (MHT) and the joint probabilistic data association (JPDA) techniques, wait for the end of a scan in order to process the measurements and to estimate targets states. This is due to the fundamental assumption of one-to-one association between tracks and measurements and the 360° physical limit of a scan. Associating measurements to initialized tracks and filtering at the end of a complete scan may cause significant delays in target state update. In addition, association may become imperfect due to longer intervals between updates. This issue becomes significant when tracking high-speed targets with low scan rate sensors as in the airborne early warning (AEW) system. In this paper, we present a new dynamic sector processing algorithm using two-dimensional (2-D) assignment for scanning radars that report measurements within the duration of a scan. The full scan is dynamically and adaptively divided into sectors, which could be as small as a single detection, depending on the scanning rate, sparsity of targets, and required target state update speed. Measurement-to-track association, filtering, and target state update are done dynamically while sweeping from one region to another, i.e., continuous track update, limited only by the inter-measurement interval, becomes possible. The proposed algorithm offers low latency while maintaining estimation accuracy in track updates as well as efficient utilization of computational resources compared with standard frame-based tracking algorithms. Experimental results based on rotating radars demonstrate the advantages of the proposed technique.